A film telling the extraordinary story of Gertrude Bell - in her own words - is set for release across the UK in April.

Letters From Baghdad had its premiere at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival and the exploits of the County Durham-born adventurer had viewers hooked.

Now audiences across Britain will get to learn about the remarkable achievements of the woman dubbed the “female Lawrence of Arabia” when the documentary opens at cinemas from April 21.

Those in the North East are already familiar with their local heroine, an archaeologist, mountaineer and “spy” whose travels saw her explore the uncharted Arabian desert; camel-ride with the famous T.E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill, and shape the destiny of Iraq.

Gertrude Bell, pictured in 1900 (Image: Film PR a)

In her day, Bell, born in Washington Hall - now Dame Margaret’s Hall in Washington village - in 1868, became the most powerful woman in the British Empire.

She was the first woman to achieve a first-class degree in modern history from Oxford and afterwards took herself off travelling the world. She was said to always pack a china tea service and silver cutlery alongside her tent so that she could maintain proper dining standards.

For 10 years Bell criss-crossed the deserts of Arabia, learning its cultures and language, and her growing knowledge and expertise of the people and the area led to her recruitment by British military intelligence during the First World War to help draw up the borders of Iraq.

She oversaw its transition to the modern state and helped establish its first king as well as a national museum in Baghdad, the city where she died in 1926 at the age of 57.

The local government named a wing of the museum after her and a plaque there in her memory reads: “Gertrude Bell, whose memory the Arabs will ever hold in reverence and affection, created this museum in 1923.”

It adds: “Being the Honorary Director of Antiquities for Iraq, with wonderful knowledge and devotion she assembled the most precious objects in it and through the heat of the summer worked on them until the day of her death on July 12, 1926.”

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Bell’s work in shaping the modern Middle East is said to still reverberate today. But her role has largely been air-brushed from history, while that of her friend Lawrence brought him world fame.

In male-dominated areas of politics and diplomacy, Bell excelled. She attended the Cairo Conference in 1921 where she was the only woman at meetings of British officials to discuss the “Middle Eastern problem” with Winston Churchill, then the newly-appointed colonial secretary.

There she advised the future Prime Minister on the country’s struggles; unrest which would later feature in 1962 epic film Lawrence of Arabia.

Gertrude Bell, pictured far-left at the Cairo Conference in 1921 wit the delegates of the Mespot Commission (Image: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)

Letters From Baghdad directors Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl said they are thrilled about the upcoming screenings which will help return Bell to the spotlight she deserves, saying: “It’s long overdue for Gertrude Bell to be brought back into the public eye in the UK, after being written out of history for over half a century.”

The film, made by Verve Pictures and Between The Rivers Productions, tells the story in Bell’s own words which are voiced by Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, who is also an executive producer.

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The intrepid traveller’s contemporaries are similarly quoted from their intimate letters, private diaries and official documents; while familiar faces such as Paul McGann, Rachael Stirling and Joanna David also feature.

It all makes for a unique insight into Bell which is complemented by never-before-seen footage as the documentary chronicles her journey into the inner sanctum of British colonial power.

And viewers will discover the complex, tangled history of Iraq has echoes in modern times.